A survey published in the journal BMC Psychiatry conducted by London researchers showed that therapists are still offering “treatments” for homosexuality although no study so far has found that these treatments really works.

 

The survey involved more than 1,300 therapists who were asked whether they would attempt to change a client’s sexual orientation if requested. Four percent of the respondents said they would do try to change a client’s sexual orientation, while 17 percent reported having assisted at least one client to reduce their gay or lesbian feelings through therapy. Moreover, these therapists have launched a new website, http://www.treatmentshomosexuality.org.uk, which is designed to raise awareness and collect histories from both therapists and the people they have treated.

 

“There is very little evidence to show that attempting to treat a person’s homosexual feelings is effective and in fact it can actually be harmful. So it is surprising that a significant minority of practitioners still offer help to their clients,” lead researchers Professor Michael King from University College London said.

 

He further said that it is important to help people adjust to their situation, to value them as people and show them there is nothing pathological about their homosexuality. They should be helped to confront prejudice in themselves and in others.

 

What makes these therapists treat their patients’ homosexuality stands in their own religious and moral beliefs. Apparently, thinking that homosexuality is a “disease” and trying to find ways to “cure” it does nothing more than to hurt these “patients” and make them believe they are some kind of pariah of the society.

 

Trying to treat homosexuals of their beliefs was more common in the US and Britain during the 1870s and 19800s, when the “aversion” therapy was in vogue. The treatments consisted in pairing homosexual imagery with electric shocks to induce feelings of revulsion, Professor King said.

 

But homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organization’s list of mental illnesses in 1992.

 

“There was a huge fashion for these treatments in the 1970s and 80s. Now we are talking more about helping patients control their thoughts, to reduce their homosexual feelings,” Professor King said.

 

Professor King and his colleagues were helped in the survey by researchers from St George's, University of London. The Wellcome Trust, the UK’s biggest independent charity, funded the survey.

 

The results of the survey were welcomed by representants of gay and lesbian organizations. For example, Derek Munn, Director of Public Affairs at the gay and lesbian equality organization Stonewall said the findings are a clear sign that homosexual people need to be treated equally by society and not be persecuted because they have other sexual orientation than most of us have. “So-called gay cure therapies are wholly discredited,” he said.